| Hu Yujing
In March, "Brilliant She", "Gong Xiu" and "Chasing the Moon", "Spider Madam: Super Awakening" and " Falling Trial" were five movies with women as the first protagonists. Released theatrically. Two of the imported films, "Mrs. Spider: Awakening" and "Falling Judgment," were directed by women, and three domestic films were directed by men. These five films cover suspense, drama, action-adventure and other genres, and discuss issues such as female independence, career dreams, female mutual aid, family conflicts and gender relations. "Judgment of the Fall" directed by French director Justine Trier is the one with the richest layers and issues and the best reputation among the five films. The other four films are outstanding in terms of originality, female character creation and perspective. flaw.
Women who help each other and betray their motherhood
"Brilliant She" is adapted from the Korean movie " Jichun Grandma ", telling the story of the grandmother played by Hui Yinghong and her granddaughter Jiayi who was accidentally lost twelve years ago after an unexpected reunion. The loss and recovery of family ties across generations is the main thread of the narrative. Grandma watched Jiayi while she was eating and doing homework, while Jiayi took care of her after her grandma lost the ability to take care of herself.
Regardless of the final completion of the film, the story revolves around an orphan girl from a fishing village of her ancestors and a marginalized girl who has been lost and returned home. It presents the lives of two generations of women helping each other in a fishing village in South China. It is a very representative example of left-behind children and women. A survival perspective.
"Brilliant Her"
The female superhero movie "Mrs. Spider: Awakening" also uses female mutual help to connect the characters. The film is Sony Pictures' first Marvel female superhero movie. The main line of the story is the mutual redemption and inspiration of three generations of women. Spider-Woman Cathy, played by Dakota Johnson, faces the emotional entanglement and reconciliation with her mother on the one hand. On the other hand, he serves as the parent of three girls who will become Spider-Women in the future, and they work together to resolve the crisis.
"Chasing the Moon" and "Falling Judgment" have created two female protagonists who deviate from the traditional motherhood. The allocation of roles reflects the rebellion against the traditional division of family roles, and to a certain extent, it also conforms to the idea that "the important thing is to have a career." "This wave. In the movie "Chasing the Moon", Mr. Qi, played by He Saifei, "doesn't live without going crazy" on the Yue Opera stage. In order to put the play "Chasing the Moon" on the stage, she did not hesitate to exchange her body for opportunities. In order to go to the provincial capital to develop She left her three children alone in her career. These plot settings make Teacher Qi seem selfish and indifferent, causing her to seriously deviate from the standards of a good wife and mother she has always been. In the film, she sings "Empty Regret, Blue Sea and Blue Sky, Every Night in the Mortal Heart" in the Yue Opera "Chasing the Moon". The traditional female imagination of Chang'e and Teacher Qi's betrayal of family and motherhood also form an interesting set of scenes in the play. Female role comparison.
"Falling Judgment" goes a step further in character setting. His wife Sandra is the strong one in the family relationship. She has a successful career, is rational, cold-hearted and eloquent. Her husband Samuel is responsible for taking care of and providing a family for his visually impaired son Daniel. Education, while the wife was being interviewed and flirting with reporters, the husband huddled in the attic doing carpentry and expressed his dissatisfaction with loud music.
Poster of "Falling Judgment"
The climax of the film is a breathtaking 10-minute quarrel scene. samuel accuses Sandra of stealing his ideas and writes them into books for publication. At the same time, he is in a hysterical state and hopes that Sandra will treat him. Provide emotional recognition and feedback for the effort of caring for the son and the family. Achievements are plagiarized by the other party, and invisible labor within the family is not recognized. In reality, Samuel's dilemma is common to most women. When the director deliberately switches genders, the novelty of the narrative and the extensibility of the topic are greatly increased.
There is a lack of original and female directors, and the female protagonists are thin.
Although the five films all focus on the choices and dilemmas of women, the production teams behind them are still dominated by men, and the directors of the three domestic films are all men. The insufficiency of the female perspective, the inertia and inertia of creation, all make the female images in the film either too thin and flat, or they are wrapped up in the male perspective and appear inconsistent and lose their agency.
Perhaps for the purpose of increasing drama and responding to hot topics, the movie "Brilliant Her" added a lot of suffering and tears to the family story, such as grandma suffering from Alzheimer's disease and Jiayi being involved in a murder. case, the film changes the healing companionship of the original life flow, and the theme of family love is dissolved into the romance and crying scenes. The screenwriter has no intention of digging into the grandmother's inner connotation and past as an elderly woman, and her performance of loving her granddaughter is also quite monotonous. The sentence "grandma made your favorite yellow croaker" appears repeatedly. Jiayi was threatened by gangsters to live stream sexy underwear and take nude photos. The young woman's body was stared at by the camera, and the plot seemed bizarre and distorted.
The heroines of "Kong Xiu" and "Chasing the Moon" both chose to leave their families and pursue careers, but this rebellion was not complete. "Kong Xiu" focuses on the story of a female worker who gets rid of the shackles of marriage, becomes a writer, and achieves spiritual independence in the changing times. Kong Xiu in the film is a woman who is suffering close to Xianglin's wife. The director limited her presentation of her sufferings from a male perspective, such as men's sexual impotence, disability, domestic violence and marital rape.
In terms of shaping a professional woman, Kong Xiu’s literary dream was inspired by her father. Regarding her love for writing, the director only used a few scenes of her writing furiously under the lights. Compared with the camera's patient and detailed description of several male characters, the female characters such as Kong Xiu's mother and sister in the film are just background panels. After her career became successful, Kong Xiu's attitude towards suffering was "it's all over" and she finally chose to reconcile with her ex-husband. The Kong Xiu portrayed in the film has a side worthy of writing and praise, but the perspective and techniques chosen by the director amplify her passivity in enduring suffering, instead of showing her autonomy and modernity, and it is difficult for the audience to learn from her. Spiritual nourishment for women’s growth.
"Kong Xiu"
"Chasing the Moon" fell into another trap - after leaving the family, Teacher Qi, who eventually lost her time due to illness, chose to return to motherhood, and even chose to help her son in order to pray for his forgiveness. He kills people. Women pursue career development and ultimately complete "redemption" by committing murders. This plot arrangement is more intimidating to women than inspiring.
Furthermore, these women's films lack originality. This aspect is reflected in the large number of remakes. "Kong Xiu" and "Chasing the Moon" are both adaptations of novels. The stories are respectively from the semi-autobiographical novel "Dream" by writer Zhang Xiuzhen and the novel "Dream" by Ai Wei who won the 8th Lu Xun Literature Award. "The Past" and "Brilliant She" are localized adaptations based on the Korean movie "Grandma Ji Chun". Another dimension of
's lack of originality is reflected in its obedience to genre creation routines and "lazy" narrative and character presentation. "Mrs. Spider" almost completely follows the narrative template of past superhero movies, from the heroine discovering and adapting to her superpowers to fighting side by side with her companions. The characters themselves have no in-depth portrayal except for fighting, running, and simple family entanglements.
"Mrs. Spider: Super Power Awakening"
Grandma and Jiayi in "Brilliant Her" are like tool men born to induce tears. Their meaning is to serve as character containers, carrying bizarre sufferings and twists and turns, making the audience cry. The continuity and fullness of the characters were abandoned by the director. The same is true for Kong Xiu. She has been tortured by marriage and family, and she needs the help of her domestically violent husband to embark on the path of writing. Although the characters are limited by the era, the director blamed the character's lack of charm and energy on "we were like that in that era", which is not a sign of the creator's lack of ability.
Epilogue: Either absent or monotonous
Looking back at the domestic movies of the past year, the appearance of women in them is still monotonous and embarrassing. In "The Disappearance of Her " directed by Chen Sicheng, the three female protagonists all seem to be born out of stereotypes - the simple and kind-hearted Li Muzi, who always wears a white dress; the femme fatale Wen Yongshan, who always wears a red dress with voluptuous makeup. The sharp and sober "manly woman" Chen Man has short hair and wears jeans most of the time.
" I am a mountain " is based on the true story of Zhang Guimei who changed the fate of a female student deep in the mountains. However, the creator of the film changed the real-life alcoholic and domestically violent father of a female student into a mother. Zhang Guimei's motivation for running a school did not come from her own pursuit. and belief, but the encouragement of her late husband, and the charm of the character is thus downgraded and dwarfed by the film.
In more movies, women are missing. For example, in the "all-male class" cast of " Flying Life 2", there is not a single female actor in the film; another example is Yaoqin in "Manjianghong", who was pushed around among a group of men, but the director still asked her to do it at the end. A chaste and fierce woman. Nowadays, audiences are happy to see stories about heroines having fun, revenge, rebirth, and careers. However, these labels in women’s movies are closer to symbols used by marketing topics. After watching the film, the audience discovered: the word "shuang" Below, the situation is complicated.
